Bond St. Sushi

A friend of mine had been ranting and raving about a Sushi place in Manhattan called Bond Street. Every time I would mention a sushi place I'd hear "Yo, you gotta try Bond Street". I would have rather gone to Nobu, fuck it even Nobu next door. I checked out some reviews of the place and they seemed decent. So finally we made plans one night and headed into the city so I can try this mystical sushi place named Bond Street.


Located in the West Village on, what a coincidence, Bond Street, we made our way into what looked like a fancy apartment building then a sushi restaurant. Inside the place was dark, kind of small, and well decorated. If I knew this place was so fancy I would have left the bathing ape hoodie and the dunks at home and put on a nice shirt and my Prada kicks. Not only am I a gastronome but I am also a sneaker head. We are greeted by two fancy gentleman and asked for our reservation. We didn't have any so we were told we would have to sit at the sushi bar which I didn't mind at all. A lot of people do not like to sit at the sushi bar.

The sushi bar has a special place in my heart. When I was at the ripe old age of 12 my parents took me along with them to meet a relative of ours visiting from Brazil. At 12 years old I was hesitant to eating anything except my mothers cooking and McDonalds. We all sat at the sushi bar where my mom was trying to feed me sushi. The sushi chef noticed I was hesitant to eat anything my mom tried to feed me. The chef looked over the bar, smiled asked me if I liked shrimp. I answered "Yes, I do". So, on a small dish, one piece of sushi was served to me. As I examined this piece of sushi I was being told by the sushi chef to go ahead, eat it, it will taste like bubble gum and the rest is history. I don't know where that place was, or what sushi chef made me but that day I added another ethnic cuisine notch to my belt.

My friends and I grabbed a drink at the bar and waited to be seated and in about 10 minutes a gentleman came over to my friends and I, and told us our tables are ready. As I walked through the place there was not an empty seat in the house. We are showed our seats and given menus. The bar was cramped and when I say cramped I mean there's more room in a Japanese capsule hotel room then at the sushi bar. It was bad. The lady sitting next to me kept elbowing me as she checked her phone.

I scanned through the menu and I started off with a salmon Ceviche which consisted of salmon, blood oranges and shallots. For my entrée I went with the spicy Tuna with chili mayo, Lobster tempura with a yellow tomato and yuzu pepper dressing and the sesame crusted shrimp roll with orange curry dressing and reduced balsamic vinegar. The menu was small with not much variety, which was sort of new to me. You have to understand when I go for sushi it's usually in Brooklyn where they have so many types of rolls that they're running out of names to call these rolls. One place in Brooklyn went as low as calling a roll “the iPhone roll.”

In Brooklyn the sushi chef's are Chinese. So it was refreshing to hear the chatter of Japanese behind the sushi bar. The head sushi chef was trying to get everyone's attention to give a toast that most traditional sushi chef's give to show appreciation for the customer. I thought to myself this is the real deal, no iPhone rolls here. My Ceviche had arrived. Any fool knows acids make a fish dish sing. This was more like 3 tenors at the Met. A harmonic balance of acids and textures. I had quickly grabbed my Treo and jotted down what flavors I tasted as I are this dish. Yeah, that's right I'm going to rip off this dish and serve it to my friends.

My sushi had arrived . The presentation of my sushi was a little cheesy. The spicy Tuna roll was formed into an arch, while the rest of my sushi was cut into rolls. Was the Tuna made into an arch as some kind of representation of a rainbow with the sushi at the bottom as a pot of gold? We'll start with the rainbow itself. Kind of mediocre for my taste. It was just a simple spicy Tuna roll. Although I have to add the fish was very fresh and the rolls were not compacted with tons of rice. The Lobster tempura was a little off balance. It was good but not anything to throw a parade for. The sesame crusted shrimp roll with orange curry sauce however was anything but ordinary. I am used to the basics when it comes to sushi: soy sauce, spicy mayo, ginger (to cleanse my pallet in between rolls) and that fake Wasabi. So the orange curry sauce for the roll was nice change for me.

For desert I had banana dim sum: little dim sum dumplings hand wrapped, fried and topped with ice cream. It was okay. Let’s leave it at that. The bill came to $380 without the tip. All in all Bond Street has a real nice décor and a good place to go if you're looking to impress someone on a first date. The sushi was very fresh but mediocre to me. I'd say the winning dish of the night was definitely my appetizer.I rate bond st a 2 out of a 4 .

edited by a.j.